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At 19, Antwon Horton lost his life in a rain of bullets two years ago.

On Thursday, one of the young men who killed the Seattle teen was sentenced to 29 years in prison. Damario Dillard, 20, will be in middle age by the time he is released. It was, in King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer's judgment, as much justice as she could offer to Horton's family, which had gathered in court to hear the ruling.

The allegations against Dillard, the ones on which a jury convicted him May 7, are that he and a group of other young men opened fire in August 2007 on Horton and two others near a shooting outside a South Seattle apartment complex. Dillard remains the only man charged in the deadly shooting,

In handing down his sentence, Shaffer noted that Horton seemed to her to be a "special young man" whose abbreviated life held promise.

"It's not always possible in a murder case to get a sense of the victim," Shaffer said. "This case was different. … It's a joy to have someone like that in your life."

Horton, Dillard and nearly all the other young men involved in the deadly shooting found themselves caught in the undercurrent of street gang violence that continues to claim lives around King County. At issue in the case were two gangs based in Seattle's Central District, Dillard with the Deuce 8 and Horton with the Low Profiles.

The night Horton was slain, Dillard had been hanging out at the Dakota Apartments on 33rd Avenue South. Horton arrived at the apartment while Dillard was there, prompting Dillard and another man to hide in a bedroom.

At trial, Deputy Prosecutor Val Richey argued that Dillard summoned the other shooters to the apartment prior to the shooting. As Horton and the two other victims walked from the building, Richey claimed -- and a jury agreed -- that Dillard and three other men opened fire. Horton, who was unarmed, was shot in the back of the head, suffering a mortal wound. Two other men with him suffered bullet wounds to their legs.

Arrested two months later, Dillard was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree assault under the state's accomplice liability law. The King County Superior Court jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts.

Addressing Shaffer, defense attorney Donald Minor argued that his client deserved an exceptionally short sentence, in part because the state could not show that Dillard fired the fatal shot. For his part, Richey argued that the loss of a young man deserved a stiffer punishment.

"I think it's a heavy thing to sentence someone Mr. Dillard's age to a prison term of this length," Richey said. "It's a tragedy. But it should be heavy, because Antwon Horton's family will never see him again."

Offered a chance to speak, Dillard apologized to Horton's family, those of the other victims, and his own.

"Antwon was a good person," said Dillard, who attended the same alternative school as Horton. "This was way out of my character. Anyone who knows me would say this is way out of my character."

Delivering the sentence, Shaffer acknowledged that Dillard was far from the worst who'd stood before her and reflected of the future that one of those who survived the shooting likely faces.

That young man he now moves with a cane, in part from injuries sustained in a second shooting. Still in his teens, he described at trial how he could predict the weather through his bullet wounds.

"That's something old people can do because of their arthritis," Shaffer said. "It's not something any 16-year-old should be able to do. … I worry that he's going to die before he reaches Mr. Dillard's age."